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LECTURE 



THE NORTH MD THE SOUTH, 



DELIVKBED BEFORE THE 



lOFNe MEN'S MEECANTllE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, 



OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, 



JANUARY 16. 1848, 



Y ELLWOOD FISHER 



CINCINNATI : 

BAItT CHROKICtl JOB ROOMS, BKTWKEK VH-IH 4.H0 SrO^KORI, 

1849. 



076 6 (j- .3^ 

6 'S '^^ 






THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. 



The progress and prospects of the Northern and Southern 
sections of this Unioa involve some of the greatest and gravest 
questions of the age. Each has a form of civilization peculiar 
to itself, and to modern times. The Confederacy which has 
been formed by their union has astonished the world by its suc- 
cess: but the vv^orld, as well as the two sections themselves, 
differ very widely as to the causes of this success, and the 
agency of the two respective systems of society in producing it. 
This controversy has long been advancing on the country, and 
now, in consequence of recent events, it has become general. 
In this part of the country, however, we have had but one 
side; and as the subject is one of the first magnitude, I have 
thought it highly important that it should be well examined. 
In a Commercial Institution like this, it is peculiarly proper that 
the causes of the wealth, and the sources of the commerce ol 
the country should be well understood. 

When the Constitution of the United States was adopted, the 
population of the two secticms of the United States was near- 
l}? equal— each being not quite two millions of inhabitants, the 
South including more than half a milion of slaves. The terri- 
tory then occupied by the two, was perhaps, also nearly equal 
in extent and fertility. Their commerce was also about the 
same; the North exporting about $'9,800,540 in 1790, and the 
South ^9,200,500.* Even the property held by the two sec 
tions was almost exactly the same in amount, being about 
400,000 millions in value each, according to an assesment for di- 
rect taxes in 1799.* For the first quarter of a century of the 
*Pitkin. 



[4] 

present government, up to 1816, the South took the lead of the 
North in commerce: as at the end of that period the exports 
of the Southern States amounted to about thirty millions of 
dollars, which was five millions more than the Northern. At 
this time, in 1816, South Carolina and New York were the 
two greatest exporting States of the Union, South Carolina 
exporting more than $10,000,000, and New York over $14,- 
000,000-1 

According to the assessments made by authority of the Fed- 
eral government in 1815 for direct taxes, the value of property 
in the Southern States had risen to $859,574,697, the white 
population being then according to an average of the census of 
1810, and that of 1820 about 2,749,795, or about $312, per 
head,'whilst the property of the Northern States amounted to 
$1,042,782,264,1 for 4,326,550 population or, only $240 per 
head. 

Even in Manufactures, the South at this period, excelled 
the North in proportion to the numbers of their population. 
In 1810, according to the returns of the' Marshals of the Uni- 
ted Slates, the fabrics of wool, cotton, and linen manufactured 
in the Northern States, amounted to 40,344,274 yards, valued at 
$21,061,5^5,§ whilst the South fabricated 34,786,497 yards esti^ 
mated at $15,771,724.* Thus after tne lapse of the first quar- 
ter of a century under our present form of gonernment, the 
South had surpassed the North in Commerce, in Manufactures 
and in the accumulation of wealth, in proportion to the number 
of citizens of the respective sections. 

Since that period, a great change has occurred. The har- 
bors of Norfolk, of Richmond, of Charleston and Savannah 
have been deserted for those of Philadelphia, New York and 
Boston; and New Orleans is the only Southern city that pre- 
tends to rival its Northern competitors. The grass is growing 
in the streets of those cities of the South, which originally mo- 
nopolized our colonial commerce, and maintained their ascend- 
ancy in the earlier years of the Union. Manufactures and the 
t.rts have also gone to take up their abode in the North. Cities 

*Pit kin. tibid. tibid. §Ibid. 



[5] 

have been expanded and multiplied in the same favored region. 
Railroads and canals have been constructed, and Educaiion 
has delighted there to build her colleges and seminaries. 

These phenomena have made a profound impression on re- 
flecting minds throughout the Union, and particularly in the 
South. By her leading statesmen, these results have been 
ascribed to the policy pursued by the Federal government 
since 1816. It was at this period that the system of direct 
taxation was finally ^abandoned, and the whole interest of the 
public debt, then so much augmented by the war, as well as the 
increased expenditures of the government, were made charge- 
able on the foreign commerce of the country, except the 
slight income from the public lands. And as at the close of the 
war, the principal articles of export, in exchange, for which we 
obtained our foreign goods, consisted of Cotton, Tobacco and 
Rice, it was held that the new policy was a peculiar burthen 
on the States that produced those staples. In addition to this, 
the estabhsment of a J|ank of the United States, located at the 
North, with large d^osites of government money, and ena- 
bled by the confidence of the government to maintain a 
large circulation, which would naturally be devoted to the pro; 
motion of Northern commerce, it was thought was also adverse 
to Southern commercial rivalry. These two measures were the 
work of a Republican Administration of the government, but 
they were strenuously opposed by the States Right party. On 
their passage in Congress, it was declared by John Randolph, 
one of the most profound and sagacious statesman Virginia, or 
any other country ever produced, that a revolution in our gov- 
ernment had occured, whose consequences no man could cal- 
culate. The result verified this prediction. Our population is 
now twenty millions, and yet it is thought by all parties, that 
twenty five millions of dollars per annum is enough for the 
support of government in time of peace. Yet sixteen years 
ago, when our population was but little more than half of 
what it is now, this government exacted $32,000,000 as du- 
ties on our foreign imports, and that too, when in consequence 



[ 6 ] 

of this heavy burthen on our foreign trade, we only imported 
64,000,000. The government took half the value of the im- 
ports as a tax on foreign trade. This outrage was the cause 
of South Carolina nullification. 

Now the power of the Federal government over foreign 
commerce is by the Constitution precisely the same as over 
that among the States. It is a power to regulate only. 
And the South contended that inasmuch as the imports from 
abroad were the proceeds chiefly, of her staple exports, and 
were therefore, to all intents and purposes the product of her 
industry and capital, that there was no more constitutional 
right to tax them on arriving in our ports, than to tax the pro- 
ducts of the North when shipped to the South. 

When therefore the statesnien of the South reflect on the 
great commercial and manufacturing prosperity of their coun- 
try in the days of direct taxation, and behold now her dilapida- 
ted cities, and deserted harbors, under the change of system, is 
it wonderful that they have made theB^lls of Congress elo- 
quent with the ruin and wrong they have sufTered ? Or it is 
wonderful that the North whilst it cannot believe that what 
has been so conducive to its own prosperity, should be detri- 
mental to others, should yet take the South at its word as to 
its decline, and seek for other causes of such a result. This 
has been done, and negro slavery has with extraordinary una- 
nimity been fixed upon as the great and efficient cause of 
Soutern decline. And it is now assumed that the South, partic- 
ularly the olderStates, is undergoing the process of impoverish- 
ment, depopulation and decay. At the North she is continu- 
ally spoken of, by almost all classes, in terms of mingled con- 
demnation and pity. She is accused of idlenes, ignorance, 
cruelty and pride. She is advised to emancipate her slaves, 
and emulate the North in enterprise, industry and civilization. 

The first object of civilized life is to accumulate wealth, 
as on that depends improvement in science and the arts, 
and the supply of the multiplied wants of society in that state. 

Andhence it is that the South is declared to be falling behind 



[7] 

the civilization of the age, and is advised to abandon her pecu- 
liar institution in order to avoid the disastrous condition of 
ignorance and barbarism that awaits her. 

Now in an age like this, of pre-eminent intelligence, with the 
schoolmasters all abroad; with the universal diffusion of the 
press, and the post, and on a question like this, of the first 
magnitude, and the least complexity, and whilst the people of 
the two sections are continually travelling amogst each other, 
and engaged in discussions with one another in stages and 
steamboats, in cars, in hotels, on the stump, and in Congress? 
it is scarcely credible that a universal mistake prevails as to 
the facts. Yet in opposition to the ex-isting opinion on the 
subject, 1 maintain that the South is greatly the superior of the 
North in wealth in proportion to the number of their citizens 
respectively ; and this will appear by a comparison of the pro- 
gress of the white people of the respective sections. The North, 
and even many in the South," have assumed a decline in manu- 
factures and commerce, to be a decline of general prosperity. 
This is an error. The policy of the Federal government, and 
the domestic institutions of the Southern States, have indeed 
been unfavorable to the latter in those pursuits, but the agri- 
culture of the South has maintained and advanced its prosperity 
bej^ond that of any other people. 

Let us first examine the condition of the wnite people of the 
two sections. 

The^State of Massachusetts for instance, is generally regarded 
as one of the most successful and flourishing of the North: and 
is constantly refered to by the' newspapers as a model for 
all the others, and very frequently as a taunt to the Southern. 
If, however, we compare this favorite of the North, with 
Maryland, a Southern State of similar territorial extent, and 
one of the least of the Southern States, we shall find the latter 
to be decidedly superior in wealth in proportion to the number 
of her citizens. According to the census of 1840, Maryland 
had a free population of 380,282, and in 1847 her property was 
assessed at ^202,272,650*. Massachusetts in 1840 had a pop, 
ulation of 737,699, and her property now is only $300,000,000. 
^American Almanac. 



[8] 

Taking these two assessments as the basis of comparison, 
and it appears that the average property ofa free person in 
Maryland was $531, whilst in Massachusetts it is now in the 
palmiest days she has ever seen, only $406 per head — the free- 
man of Maryland being about 25 per cent thericher. 

The States of New York and Virginia are both of great 
territorial extent, and not materially unequal in that respect. 
New York is also regarded habituallly, as one of the grandest 
products of free institutions — and the present condition of 
Virginia is continually refered to, as a striking and melancholy 
result of slavery. Her poverty, her ignorance, her idleness, 
her decay, and her misery are the threadbare topics of modern 
political philosophy here and abroad. Let us now consider the 
facts. Her free population in 1 840, according to the census 
was 790,810, and her property is now about $600,000,000.* 
The population of New York in 1840 was 2,428,921, and in 
1847 her property is assessed at $'632,699,993. The average 
property of a free person in Virginia is $758; in New York 
it is only $260, or a little more than d&e third. 

Virginia instead of being poor and in need of the pity of 
the much poorer population of the North is perhaps the richest 
community in the world. The average wealth of the people 
of Great Britain may be about the same, but it is not near so 
productive, and I think it demonstrable that no people on earth 
live in a condition of greater comfort and enjoyment than 
those of Virginia. Nor is there any reason to fear a decline 
in her wealth. According to the census returns of 1840, Vir- 
ginia with a free population of less than one third of that of 
New York, and a capital something less, produced from the 
various bracnhes of her industry, more than half the product of 
New York ; and as the total population of Virginia slave and 

*The property of Massachusetts, is stated according to recent estimates 
in her papers. That of Virginia was computed at the amount now as- 
sumed in 1834 by Prof. Dew. I have seen no official staetment. But if 
she taxes other property as high as negroes, the total must now far exceed 
that estimate, as in 1847 she taxed 252,317 adult slaves at $80,741, who 
are worth about $ 100,000,000, and taxes her other property, real and per- 
sonal $354,154, exclusive of merchant's stock, and the Govenors message 
states there has been an increase of 5 per cent in every item of taxation 
)aBt year. 



[9] 

free is only about half of that of New York, it is clear that 
after deducting the annual consumption of both, Virginia will 
have a larger proportional surplus remaining to augment the 
stock of her permanent property. 

If now we examine the relative condition of the new States 
the same results are apparent. The States of Kentucky and 
Ohio lie side by side, and are of similar climate, fertility, and 
extent — the proportion of rich land being, however, less in 
Kentucky. Their age is, also nearly the same, Kentucky 
having been admitted as a State about eleven years before Ohio. 
Ohio is considered the most prosperous State in the West, and 
is continually contrasted with Kentucky for the purpose of 
illustrating the blighting effects of slavery on the latter. Let us 
see with what reason. 

In 1 840, Kentucky had a free population of 597,570, and 
her property amounts, according to her tax assessment of 1 848, 
to about 272,847,696*. Ohio, in 1840, had a population of 
1,519,467, and her assessment last year was 421,067,9911. — 
The average value of property belonging to each free person 
in Kentucky is f 456— in Ohio it is only $276, or more than 
one- third less; and as the population of Ohio is now stilTv. 
greater in proportion to that of Kentucky than in 1 840 th^^,J 
difference in favor of the latter is still more. 

Nothing is more common than the opinion that the price 
of land in Kentucky is, in consequence of slavery, much lower 
than in Ohio. I have examined the Auditors reports of both 
States, which present in detail the valuation of all their lands 
In Kentucky the average valine is about seven dollars per 
acre, in Ohio it is about eleven, and I am very confident that 
the quality of Ohio land is to that extent superior — as in 
Kentucky there is a large mountain region for which Ohio, has 
nothing equivalent. Thus, then, it is manifest that the free 
people of the slave-holding states — of those States which are 
uniformly regarded as the victims of poverty and ruin, are 
all richer, much richer, than those of the non-slaveholding 
States which have been usually considered as the most flour- 
ishing members of this confederacy and the most prosperous 
* Ky. Auditor's Report, 1848. t Ohio Auditor's Report. 

B2 



[10] 

communities the world ever saw. Such at least is the tesi. 
mony of official documents on the subject — the highest authori- 
ty that exists. For I have taken nearly all these statements of 
the property of the several States alluded to, from the assess- 
ments made by public officers, for the collection of taxes. Of 
the accuracy of the valuations, it is of course impossible to 
speak from personal knowledge; — but those of Ohio and Ken- 
tucky are, according to my opportunities of observation, as 
nearly correct as need be desired. And as to the other States 
the chances of error are perhaps as great on one side as the 
other. 

In the slaveholding States, slaves are of course included in 
the property. This is sometimes objected to, but I think 
without reason. The question is, which is the most profitable 
investment of capital — in land and slaves — as is usual in the 
slaveholding States — or inland alone, or commerce and manu- 
factures, as in the Northern States? And this question is 
almost universally decided in favor of the latter. In the South, 
according to its laws, the slave is as available to his owner for 
the purposes of property, as any other property. The North 
has held, however, that this peculiar species of property, instead 
of being profitable to the owner, has been impoverishing and 
ruinous. And in contradiction to this I have shown that in 
every community where it exists there wealth abounds to a 
far greater extent than in the States from which it is excluded, 
whatever may be their climate, soil, or territory. But even if 
the assessed value of all the slaves in Kentucky, Virginia, and 
Maryland, were left out of the schedule of their property, the 
white people of those States would still remain wealthier, on 
an average, than those of Ohio, New York, and Massachusetts. 
By others again it is contended, that in estimating the aver- 
age wealth of individuals in a community the slaves ought to 
be included as persons, and left out as property. This, I think, 
is also an error, for the reason before stated. Where it is con- 
contended that the white man ought to abandon slave property 
because it makes him poor, or prevents him from getting rich, 
it is absurd to assert that he not only has no property in his 



[in 

slave, but that other property belongs equally to him. But if for 
any other purpose or view of political economy, the slave be 
included with the freeman in averaging the property of a State, 
it will even then appear that in the States I have considered 
the Southern are still wealthier than the Northern, counting 
the slaves as persons and deducting them from the property. 
So that in no aspect of the question whatever, is there any 
foundation in fact for the popular delusion that the Southern 
States, or|any of them, are either now or heretofore, or likely to 
be hereafter, inferior to their Northern neighbors in wealth — 
but the reverse. 

The triumph of Southern enterprize and capital in the accu- 
mulation of wealth being established as a fact, demands of us an 
investigation of its causes— and this, I think, will materially 
elucidate the character of modern civilization, and particularly 
that which has been developed in the United States. 

The original methods of acquiring wealth, adopted by men 
on their organization into communities, was by conquest or 
commerce. Hence the almost exclusively military character 
of one great class of the ancient states; which resulted in the 
universal empire successively of the Assyrian, Persian, Greek, 
and Roman governments; — and hence the rise of Tyre and Car- 
thage. Hence also, in the middle ages, the empire of Charlem- 
agne, and the long protracted eflbrts of France to conquer 
England, and England to conquer France — and the wealth of 
Venice, Genoa, and Holland. At a later period when the arts 
had made more progress, manufactures were included in the 
means of creating wealth. The policy of England has com- 
bined the three, conquest, commerce, and manufactures, and 
by these she has succeeded in the construction of an empire 
which, for extent of territory and wealth, has never had a 
parallel. The policy of England has been dictated by her 
insular position. This rendered it necessary for her to acquire 
the empire of the sea to be secure from invasion by great con- 
tinental powers, and with the dominion of the sea, it was easy 
to establish a great colonial empire. The growth of such a 
great power in commerce, was the strongest possible stimulus 



[12] 

to progress in the arts and manufactures; hence her success in 
them. But an extraordinary development of commerce and 
manufactures has alwas resulted in the concentration of large 
masses of people in cities, which causes inequality of condition, 
great depravity of morals, great increase of want, and of crime; 
consequences that are fatal in the first place to liberty in gov- 
ernments, and finally to independence in nations. This ten- 
dency has been so obvious and universal among the great 
States of all ages, as to have caused the belief that communities? 
like individuals, contain within themselves the seeds of disso- 
lution which must ultimately bring them to the dust. 

But whether we consider a State as a moral being, whose 
essence consists in the principles on which it is constructed, and 
therefore not necessarily mortal, or whether we regard it as a 
mere creature of the race or persons that founded or inhabit it, 
and therefore transient, there can be no doubt that its prosper- 
ity is seriously impaired by the evils refered to, that generally 
attend the progress of civilization. 

Rural life has always been celebrated by the poets for its 
innocence. 

"God made tha country and man mado the town;" 
But it is a kind of life that has seldom been thought favorable to 
the accumulation of wealth — the first want of civilization. It is 
also usually associated with rudeness of manners. Hence the 
votaries of fortune and society have prefered the city, and if to 
these we add the vast multitude who seek the immediate 
gratification of their appetites and passions, which cities afford, 
at the hazard of future want, we have a clear solution of the 
undue tendency to city at the expense of country life. This 
great evil, sufficient of itself to cast a stigma on civilization and 
even ultimately to destroy it, was for the first time success- 
fully encountered and conquered by the institutions of the 
South; and in the great achievement Virginia led the way. — 
Amongst the early white settlers of Virginia were many of the 
Cavaliers who had been driven into exile by the triumph of the 
Roundheads and of Cromwell. The Cavaliers were of the 
country party in England, the cities and towns were more 



[13] 

generally devoted to the Roundheads. The Cavaliers of Vir- 
ginia seem to have brought over with them from England a 
hostility even to the modes of life of the enemies they left 
behind them, as the settlers of New England, on the other hand, 
from the Roundheads, became highiy commercial. These pe- 
culiarities were exhibited in a striking manner in the progress 
of the two colonies. Bancroft tells us: 

" But the greatest safeguard of liberty in Virginia was the 
individual freedom of mind, which formed of necessity, the 
character of independent land-holders living apart on their 
plantations. In the age of commercial monopoly Virginia had 
not one market town, not one place of trade. As to all out- 
ward appearance it looked all like a wild desert,' and the mer- 
cantile world, founding its judgement on the absence of cities, 
regarded it as < one of the poorest, miserablest, and worst 
countries in America." It did not seek to share actively in the 
profits of commerce ; it had little of the precious metals, and still 
less of credit — it was satisfied with agriculture. Taxes were 
paid in tobacco; remittances to Europe were made in tobacco; 
the revenue of the clergy, and the magistrates and the colony, 
was collected in the same currency; the colonial tradesman re- 
ceived his pay in straggling parcels of it, and ships from abroad 
were obliged to be whole months in the rivers, before boats 
visiting the several plantations on their banks could pick up a 
cargo. In the season of a commercial revolution, the com- 
mercial element did not enter into the character of the colony. 
Its inhabitants "daily grew more and more averse to cohabi- 
tation." 

Such was ihe character of Virginia in 1700 — ninety-two 
years after the colony was founded, and seventy-six before her 
Indepence — such she has remained. I have seen a law passed 
by her legislature during the revolutionary war, prohibiting 
merchants from serving as Representatives in the Continental 
Congres. 

But this primitive character of Virginia could not have been 
preserved to the extent we now behold, but for peculiar cir- 
cumstances. The soil of Virginia was found to be adapted 
to the cultivation of tobacco, and African slave labor to its 
cultivation; and tobacco soon became an article of commerce. 
The introduction of this sort of labour had the effect of ex- 



[14] ^ 

eluding, in a great measure, emigration from Europe— the emi- 
gration which subverted the ascendency of the Quakers of 
Pennsylvania — which has materially modified the original 
character of New England, and still more of the new free 
states of the West. And it has been through negro slavery 
that agriculture has been made, for the first time in the history 
of the world, so profitable and attractive as to render rural life 
the favorite of wealth as well as of the mass of the people — to 
make the country instead of the towns, the abode of elegant 
manners and refined taste. And this system of society has pre- 
vailed throughout the other states of the South, owing to the 
similarity of their primitive character to that of Virginia — to 
her example — to emigration into them of many Virginians, the 
warmth of the climate, and to the culture of cotton, which 
is more favorable to the employment of slave labor than that 
of tobacco. 

Thus, then, we have fifteen Southern States — one half of 
the number belonging to the Union; occupying half our terri- 
tory — who present the extraordinary and so far as my re- 
searches extend, the unparalleled result of a population which 
has acquired grerter wealth by agriculture, than any other peo- 
ple in any other manner; and who have consequently given 
ascendancy within their borders to country life over city, in 
social and political power. In Great Britain, the only country 
which can be compared in civilization with ours, the land-hold- 
ers are indeed a very wealthy class, perhaps the most so, but 
they have dwellings in London, and pass a large part of the 
year there. The land-holders of Great Britain also constitute 
but a small portion of the population. 

We must now considerthe effect upon the various elements 
of civilization, of a popula tion at once wealthy and rural like 
that of the South. 

In communities which have acquired great wealth, it is 
almost universal that such wealth is very unequally distributed- 
Extreme poverty and extreme wealth characterize the popu- 
lation — but the mass are poor. This is perhaps inevitable 
where manufactures or commerce or conquest are the means 



[15] 

of acquisition. And in England this is strikingly displayed. — 
But it is not so in an agricultural people I know it is a com- 
mon opinion, that much greater inequality of property exists 
in the South than in the North. But although I do not possess 
exact knowledge on this point, there is enough known to prove 
that this cannot be the case. The State of Virginia allows 
none to exercise the elective franchise but white freeholders, 
leaseholders of five years, and house keepers who are heads of 
families. Now it appears by the returns of the Presidential 
election of 1844, that Virginia gave about 95,000 votes; 
allowing 10,000 for voters who did not attend the polls, and it 
appears that there are 105,000 free white males in that State 
who are either freeholders, leaseholders, or house keepers and 
heads of families, and by the census of 1840 there were only 
157,989 white males in that State above the age of 21 ; so that 
two-thirds of them are either freeholders, leaseholders, or house 
keepers. 1 do not know what proportion of the Northern 
States are freeholders, but I have seen a detailed statement 
from one of the interior counties of New York from which it 
appears that only half the voters were freeholders; and when 
we consider that the cities of New York and Boston contain 
nearly half the property of the states to which they respect- 
ively belong, and that in those cities pauperism prevails to 
greater extent than any where else in the Union, it is very 
clear that great inequality of property prevails. 

The State of Ohio, a new State and an agricultural one, and 
very prosperous, may be presumed to enjoy a tolerable equal 
distribution of property. There are in this State, by the last 
assessment, about fifty thousand pleasure carriages, and the 
possession of one of these, is an indication of a comfortable 
condition of a family. In Virginia there were in 1847, over 
19,000; and that in a white population about one third as great 
as ours is now. This proves that the degree of comfort which 
such establishments indicate, is more diffused in Virginia than 
in Ohio. The proportion of dwellings built in a year, is 
another indication of comfort, and the degree of its diffusion 
among a people. According to the returns of the marshals 



[16] 

in 1840, Massachusetts, whose white population is nearly the 
same with that of Virginia, built 324 brick houses in that year- 
Virginia built 402, or nearly one fourth more. Massachusetts 
built 1249 wooden houses the same year, Virginia, 2604, or 
more than double. The cost of the houses in Massachusetts 
was ^2,767,134; in Virginia, only $1,367,393, or about half 
Now if this excess in the cost of the houses of Massachusetts 
be attributable to the excess of business, or manufacturing 
structures among them, it swells the proportion of dwellings 
built in Virginia, and thus displays a still greater progress in 
comfort among the population of the latter. But if the excess 
of cost in Massachusetts is owing to the superior style of her 
dwellings, it proves, since the number is so much less, a still 
greater inequality of property. A comparison of the houses 
built in New York the same year with those in Virginia, ex- 
hibits similar results. And I will add that the same thing is 
true, by a comparison between Virginia and Ohio, although 
one is considered the most declining, the other the most advan- 
cing State in the Union; one supposed to be the most unequal 
in the distribution of property; the other the reverse. In 
1840 Ohio built 970 brick, and 2764 wooden houses, at a cost 
of $3,776,823. Thus, whilst we had twice the white popula- 
tion, we built only a fourth more of houses. Kentucky also, 
as well as Virginia, surpassed Ohio in this respect. Kentucky 
built 483 brick and 1757 wooden houses; thus with only 40 
per cent of Ohio's white population, she built 75 per cent of 
the number of houses Ohio did. The fact is that Virginia and 
Kentuck)^ constructed in that year, more buildings in propor- 
tion to their whole population black and white, than Ohio and 
Massachusetts. This result does not appear, indeed in the 
cities, or in the principal streets of cities, and therefore has not 
come to the knowledge of fugitive and superficial observers, or 
newspaper item-mongers, but it is demonstrated by the labors 
of the officers of government who were required to visit the 
country as well as the towns, the bye-ways, as well as the high- 
ways, and it is triumphant evidence of the extraordinary ag- 
gregate prosperity, and wide-spread individual comfort of the 



[17] 

States which have been selected by the new school of politi- 
cians, and political economists as the objects of their sympathies 
and the victims of their theories. 

The same relative condition of comfort in the two respec- 
tive sections of the Union, is indicated in their food. Althoush 
Virginia is not an exporter of animal food, she is one of the 
greatest producers of it, of all the States. In 1 840 she pos- 
sessed 1,992,155 hogs, which is almost identically the same 
number that Ohio had, although Ohio has twice the white popu- 
lation, and as is well known, is a large exporter of pork, whilst 
Virginia imports, in addition to her own stock every year a 
large quantity. New York with three times the white popula- 
tion, was materially behind Virginia in this respect. Now it 
is well known that the great mass of provisions produced in 
any State, are designed for domestic consumption, as the cost 
of transporting them to the dwellings of an agricultural people 
is to great to admit of their importation. Hence the pro- 
ducts of such a people afford a good criterion of the char- 
acter of their food. The stock of neat cattle in New York 
was 1,911,244; in Virginia it was 1,024,148. the proportion of 
Virginia being still the greatest. In sheep alone, was New 
York better off, having 5,1 18,777, whilst Virginia had 1,293,- 
772, which, however is only about 150,000 less than her share. 
The proportion of poultry in Virgiuia is double that of New 
York. And in all these articles Virginia is still more the su- 
perior of Ohio than of New York. So also is Kentucky. So 
that if it be said that New York is an importer of such pro- 
visions, and therefore consumes more than her production in- 
dicates, what is to be said of Ohio which exports them all. 
Now in determining the relative comfort of two civilized com- 
munities in the same climate, the quantity of animal food they 
respectively consume, is a well established criterion. Yet 
here is a State in the warmer climate consuming the greater 
proportion. For when it is considered that the hog is killed 
for food at the age of 1 8 months or two years, and neat cattle 
at 5 or 6 yaars, it Avill appear that the excess of animal food in 



Virginia or Kentucky over New York or Ohio is quite large, — 
is quite large, indeed even if we include the slave as well as 
ihe free pooulation of the former States. 

A reference to the quality of breadstuff's and other vegetable 
food, leads to the same conclusion. Virginia is the largest pro- 
ducer of wheat, the finest and costliest material of bread, of 
any other State, according to her population. Her crop of 
1840 was 10,109,716 bushels; that of New York was only 
12,286,418: of Ohio 16,571,661. All these are wheat export- 
ing, as well as wheat consuming States, but still the great 
mass of that article must be consumed in the respective States, 
of its production. In proportion to her white population, Vir- 
ginia produces twenty five per cent, of wheat more than Ohio, 
and two hundred per cent, more than New York. How is 
the deficiency supplied in New York ? Not by importation, 
but by the substitution of potatoes, that cheapest article of 
vegetable food, to which the misfortunes or improvidence of 
Ireland have driven her. New York, instead of producing h^r 
proportion of wheat with Virginia, which would be thirty-five 
millions of bushels, instead of of twelve, produces annually 
thirty millions of bushels of potatoes, and it is remarkable that 
Virginia, with nearly half a million of slaves, instead of resort- 
ing to this cheap food for them, produces only about three 
millions of bushels of potatoes, and provides her negroes with 
corn, of which her annual crop is about 34i millions of 
bushels, and which is a much more costly and substantial ar- 
ticle of food. The tendency manifested by New York to 
pre!er the cultivation of the cheapest, but the more precari- 
ous and less nourishing article of vegetable food is also dis- 
tinctly visible in all the Northern States, and is a fact which 
alw.iys deserves to be considered in any estimate of their pres- 
ent and future comfort. In Massachusetts agriculture is rap- 
idly declining; particularly the production of the finer sorts of 
breadstuff's, — a fact which is admitted and lamented by one of 
her leading papers — the Boston Atlas. The following state- 
ments are from the official returns ol the State: 



[19] 

Bus. wheat. Ind. corn. Barley. Rye. Buckwh't. Potaloee, 

1840 210.000 2,203,000 156,000 563,000 102,000 4,M50.000 

1845 4'<,000 1,985,0)0 121. 9U 447,000 32 000 4,767,000 



Decrease, 162 OJO 218,00.1 34,069 116,000 70,000 83,000 

Of course it is not pretentled that States of a commercial 
and manufactuiing character chiefly, should produce as much 
from the soil, in proportion to population as the agriculturaU 
But the articles they do produce, and their proportions to each 
other, indicate the quality of food at least of the agricultural 
population. Hence it appears that the farmers of Massachu- 
setts consume but little wheat bread, and use rye, indian corn 
and potatoes as substitutes. 

I think now that if anything (;an be shown by facts, I have 
demonstrated the superior wealth of the people of the South 
over those of the North in proportion to their respective num 
bers ; and this, by comparing the less prosperous of the South 
with the most flourishing of the. North. And, I think I have 
shown the South to be the most fortunate in the distribution or 
equalization of wealth as well as in its acquisition. At all events, 
I have rescued thie controversy between the two sections, from 
the control of bold assertion and slipshod declamation, and 
confided it to the umpirage of argument and document. 

There are some who sneer at statistics, and assert that any- 
thing can be proved by them. But such expressions, I think 
are peculiar to those who deal in assertion chiefly, and find it 
unpleasant to be answered with facts. For statistics are noth- 
ing but collections of facts. I admit that fact themselves may 
be powerless or pernicious to a mind not logical nor philosophic- 
al enough to comprehend and classify them. But in relation to 
the affairs of this world at least, I ask with the English philo- 
sophic poet. 

"What can we reason but from what we know.*' 
Facts constitute the great restraint on the imposition of in- 
terests, the dogmatism of fanatics and bigots, the fallacies of 
the vulgar, the prejudices of the sectional, and the dreams of 
enthusiasts. Facts are the tests of systems, the landmarks of 



[20] 

progress, the harvest of time, the elemental particles of truth. 

B'^t '* '3 p?cal;-rly important to resort to statistics on this 
question, because they are so much employed and perverted on 
the other side. From the speech of the Senator to the column 
of the Editor we are continually assailed with statistical com- 
parisons between the North and South derogatory to the lat- 
ter. In 1839 Daniel Webster presented in a speech to the 
Senate in praise of Massachusetts, an official statement of her 
annual products, which amounted to nearly ^100,000,000, 
which he characterized as the yearly fruit of her industry and 
capital. This would strike every mind as evidence of great 
productiveness and profit in a State of her population ; since 
the annual product of Virginia is only about seventy millions. 
But on scrutinizing the Massachusetts statement, it is found 
that Webster included as the product of her industry, the raw 
material employed in her manufactures obtained from other 
States; the raw cotton, the wool, the raw hides, the dye stuffs, 
&c., &;c. 

It was but the other day that we had an extract from the 
report of the Commissioner of Patents, published in all the 
papers which undertook to give us an estimate of the wealth 
of the respective States. On examination. It is found to 
assume population, as the basis of wealth. An average is 
made of the wealth of each man in a few States, and that is 
multiplied by the number of men in each State. By this rule 
Indiana, which is more populous than Massachusetts, has more 
wealth — and the North of course, greatly^more than the South. 
The Commissoner|of patents is a Northern man; and travels de- 
liberately out of the sphere of his duties to make up and send 
for\h this absurd table— and in thus undertaking officially and 
officiously to enlighten the ignorance of the people, displays 
his own. 

But whilst I contend that statistical evidence may be suffic- 
ient to convince, I am aware that it is not enough to satisfy, the 
mind, particularly when at variance with 'prevalent opinions. 
It is a legitimate and laudable desire, even after knowing that 
a thing is so, to knowj why it is so. And I acknowledge it is 



[21] 

incumbent on whoever attempts ?to overthrow a popular, error 

to show not only that it is such, but that it must be such, on 
the recognized principles of human judgment. 

The reason, then I conceive for the great pecuniary pros- 
perity of the South, is that she is so generally agricultural- 
About half the population of the old Northern States resides 
in towns or cities — in the Southern about one tenth. 

Even Ohio, a new State with greater agricultural attrac- 
tions naturally, than any other, has already a town and city 
population estimated at one fourth of the whole; the sinc^le 
city of Cincinnati, only fifty years of age, containing more peo- 
ple than ten of the largest towns of Virginia, the oldest State 
of the Union. 

But why is agriculture more profitable than manufactures or 
commerce? One reason is, that agriculture is more productive 
or multiplying than them: that its products are the principal and 
the indispensible articles of human subsistence, and are 
obtained with less of human labour and skill, than the others. 
The fecundity of nature can never be rivalled by art. A grain 
of wheat when sown will produce an hundred fold, but no fab- 
ric of the loom, no cargo of the ship can have its value aug- 
mented in the same proportion, without the co-operation of a 
much greater proportion of labor and skill. Commerce and 
manufacture are chiefly artificial; agriculture is for the most 
part the work of nature. It is true that the facility with 
which articles are produced from the soil, influences materially 
their value in market, and that the prices of different kinds of 
lab^tr tend to equality; and it is true also, that prices of com- 
modities are aflfected by the relations of supply and demand. 
Hence there is no such diflTerence between the profits 
of the farmer and the artizan, or merchant, as the rela- 
tive productiveness of their labors would indicate. But the 
interchange of commodities between the two classes, is by 
no means equal, nor is it it obedient to those laws of trade. 
The farmer holds the subsistence, and consequently the proper- 
ty of his civilized fellow men in his power; and this power he 
will exercise when circumstances permit, according to the sen- 



[22] 

liments which the possession of power inspires; according to 

the predjudices of his class, to the appetite of monopoly — and 
not according to the wages of labor, and the law of supply and 
demand. The monopoly of the necessaries of life which ag- 
riculture confers, has produed some of the most striking social 
and political revolutions in history. It enabled Jacob to extort 
from Esau, who was a hunter, his birthright for a mess of pot- 
tage. But Jacob himself and his family prefered the lighter 
labors of shepherd life, to tillage, and hence from a scarcity of 
corn, became dependent on the granaries of Egypt, and fell 
into bondage. In wars between agricultural and commercial 
nations, the former have generally conquered. Athens was 
overcome by Sparta — Greece by Maced'»n — Carthage by 
Rome, — events which indicate the superior resources of the 
conquerors more than their bravery. In England whose 
commeice has been enriched by the monopoly of the trade of 
colonies in every clime, and whose manufactures have been 
expanded by the most stupenduous inventions of genius, ag- 
riculture still maintains preeminence in wealth and political 
power, alih )Ugh it comprehends only about one-third of the pop- 
ulation The agriculture of the South produces a greater vari- 
ety and abundance of the staple articles of human comfort and 
subsistence than that of any other region. Besides such bread- 
stuffs and provisions as the North affords, the South has by 
the superior genius and energy of her people acquired almost a 
monopoly of the cotton culture. The South thus controls an 
extraordinary proportion of that food and clothing which the 
world consumes, and hence makes a corresponding progress in 
wealth. 

Whilst agricultural life is so much more productive than oth. 
er avocations, it is vastly less expensive or consuming. Almost 
all other pursuits resort to towns and cities, where the style of 
living is cosily and extravngant. It is very rare to find farmers 
or planters residing in palaces of marble or granite. It is sel- 
dom that even public buildings in the country are constructed 
of such materials. But in cities they are not unusual in private 
dwellings with those who have the means — whilst the great 



[28] 

number of public buildings, churches, banks, offices, &c., are 
of corresponding magnificence. The style of buildin:: af- 
fords a fair criterion of the other elements of expense in 
city life, diet, clothing and amusements. It is well known 
that in the larger cities, the expenditure of the wealthy class 
of families amounts to some eight or ten thousand dollars a 
year. Now among the planters of the South of equal wealth, 
in the country, it would be hard to find a mere domestic ex- 
penditure of such an amount ;1perhaps rarely more than half of it. 
In the country the inducement to build such habitations is not 
so great. There are not so many to admire and to praise in a 
rural neighborhood as throng the streets and avenues of a large 
city. Nor is there to be found in the country the over-grown 
millionaire to set the example, and to fire the pride and vanity 
of his poorer neighbors, their wives and daughters with a de- 
sire to emulate and imitate. 

In a city the temptation to indulgence is incessant, because 
almost every object of desire is in market, and desire itself is 
inflamed not only by opportunity but by rivalry. 

It is this great display of wealth and luxury in cities, which 
has caused the popular error that they are the peculiar abodes 
of wealth and prosperity; and that the States where they 
abound, are more flourishing than others. The world is a great 
believer in appearances. But it is curious that the very cir- 
cumstances which have given to cities a character for riches? 
should be the causes of that poverty, whose actual existfnce 
has been proven. For the practice of extravagance is not con- 
fined to the rich; but extends to every class of city life. For 
in every class there are rivals struggling with each other to 
make the best appearance, and the distinctions of class are so 
indistinct as to make each one ambitious of equalling its imme- 
diate superior. In a word, the dominion of fashion is far more 
despotic and oppressive in city, than in conntry life. Even 
the poor sempstress, who bends over her work during the te- 
dious hours of day, and far into the night, to earn a meagre sub- 
sistence, until dimness gathers in her eye, and distortion fastens 
on her form, even she pays from her scanty earnings the tribute 



[ 24 ] 

exacted by fashion, and arrays herself in a costume as conform- 
able to the prevailing mode, as her means can make it. But in 
the country, where people do not live under each others obser- 
vation and criticism continually, it is otherwise. It is only 
when visiting or visited that the occasion of display occurs, and 
the annual expenditure is regulated accordingly. It is true that 
the average wealth of the iuhabitants of cities is generally 
greater than that of the rest of the people in the State, and 
almost equals that of prosperous agricultural States. But 
this wealth is not the product of city employments. It results 
from the influx into the city of persons who have become rich 
in the country, and who resort to the cities, because they can- 
not carry on agricultural operations extensively in the country 
in free States. This results from the high price of agricultural 
labor in the free States, and its irregularity. An industrious 
laborer on a farm, soon acquires enough money to buy a small 
tract of public land, and emigrates to it. Hence a farmer who 
acquires some wealth in these States, and finds it difficult to ex- 
tend his operations in the country, resorts to commercial ope- 
rations, and settles in town. Even those who would prefer re- 
maing in the country, and yet desire to enjoy their fortunes in 
social intercourse, find it difficult to spend their leisure pleas- 
antly in the neighborhood, from the want of associates of equal 
means, the great mass being the occupants of small farms, with- 
out servants, and therefore lack the means of performing the 
rites of hospitality, without a derangement of their domestic 
systems. The want then of society in the country, the oppor- 
tunity of investing largely in towMs, the chances of acquiring 
great fortunes by speculation, and the facilities for gratifying 
our various appetites which wealth affords in cities, ail conspire 
to divert the wealth of the country to the town, in free States. 
Even in Boston for instance, it appears by a recent enumeration 
that nearly two thirds of the inhabitants were not born in the 
city: nearly one-half are natives of the Union, most of them of 
course from Massachusetts, and the other New England States. 
In fact not quite one-tenth of the people of Boston, over twen- 
ty years of age were born there. The total population o' 



[ ^'^ 1 

Boston in 1825, was 43,298, and it\ 1845, the native population 
instead of being double was but 41,076. So that there has 
been no natural increase of the population of Boston in 20 
years. These facts atlbrd striking evidence, not only of the 
sources of Boston wealth, but of the rapidity with which it is 
wasted on its arrival. Besides the extravagant and speculative 
habits of cities, which waste their resources, we must add the 
enormous taxation to which they are subject. The city of 
New York with its four-hundred thousand people, is taxed for 
the present year, about three millions of dollars, a sum which 
is about half as much as the taxes of all the fifteen Southern 
States combined. 

But the most disastrous and appalling consequences of citv 
avocations, is the waste of human life. In the city of New 
York, the deaths last year exceeded 14,000, or one per?on out 
of every twenty eight; and it wa« a year of no uncommon 
mortality for that place. The great mortality of the eastern 
cities is supposed to belong chiefly to the emigrant population. 
But this is not the case. In 1836, when the deaths were 8009 
in New York, only a little over one-fourth were foreign; and 
that must have been about the proportion of that population. 
In 1847 the deaths in the city of New York were 15,788, of 
whom only 5,412 were foreigners, although the mortality of 
that year was increased by the ship fever, which was very fatal 
to emigrants. The deaths week before last were^SSG, of which 
108, or more than one-third were foreign, and the proportion 
of that population is now much more than one third. The 
mortality of New York is much greater than it seems; because 
being so largely emigrant from the interior and from abroad, 
the proportion of adults in her population is much greater than 
ordinary, and among adults mortality is not near so great as 
among children. New York has 50,000 children les« than 
her share. 

In the last twenty years the population of New York has 
nearly doubled, but its mortality has nearly trebled. 

According to an official statement* of the duration of human 
•AmarieaB Alra&nac, 1849. 



116] 

life in the several avocations in Massachusetts in 1847, it ap- 
pears that the average of 

Agriculturalists is 64.14 years. 

Merchants 49.20 

Mechanics 46.45 " 

Laborers [46.73 " 

This is the average life-time in the several occupations 
beginning at twenty years. According to this, the three 
avocations of city life, merchants, mechanics and laborers^ 
average about 46* years, whilst farmers live more than 64i 
years, or one third longer ! This enormous, and I had al- 
most said atrocious destruction of human life, which is continu- 
ally going on in towns and cities, is enough of itself to account 
for the superior progress of agriculture in wealth. The loss of 
so large a proportion of time, in adult years, the expenses of 
sickness, and the derangement of business, make an aggregate 
of itself enough to sink any reasonable rate of profit or accu- 
mulation in any pursuit. And, hence it is that the South, which 
is so much exempt from the corrosive action of cities on prop- 
erty and population has made such rapid progress in wealth. 

Thus then the superior productiveness of agricultural labor, 
the great intrinsic value as articles of necessity, of its products, 
the extravagant style of living in towns and cities, and finally, 
the ruinous waste of human life and labor they occasion, are 
reasons enough to account for the fact previously demonstra- 
ted, of the triumph of the agricultural States of the South over 
the more commercial States of the North. 

But it is objected that the Northern States are more popu- 
lous, and that if the average wealth of their individual citizens 
is less, the aggregate wealth of the State is greater. This, 
however, is of no consequence to the argument. The aggre- 
gate wealth of Ireland is no doubt greater than that of any of 
any of our States, as her population is so much greater. And 
yet her people die by thousands of starvation. I am consider- 
ing the condition of our people, as aflected by tneir respective 
institutions and pursuits. And I think this is the great point in 



[ n \ 

which patriotism and philanthropy and philosophy are con- 
cerned. 

But it is asserted that the system of the South is de- 
populating; that the people of Virginia are deserting her: 
that the population of Kentucky is almost stationary; and 
that the whole Southern section is but thinly settled, and 
promises to remain so. If it be meant by all this, that South- 
ern modes of living, are incompatible with a dense population, 
I admit it, and rejoice in it. So far as the concentration of 
people in towns and cities is concerned, I have endeavored to 
show that such a thing is not so much to be desired. Nor do 
1 think it expedient to promote the augmentation of numbers 
within the territorial limits of a State, by a minute subdivision 
of farms and plantations among a multitude of proprietors or 
tenants. Such is too much the tendency in the free States, 
and in other countries; and it has been found fiital to agricultu- 
ral improvement. It has resulted in France, in reducing the 
average size of farms to an area of three or four acres, held 
under their laws of descent by distinct proprietors. And in a 
part of Scotland, and in Ireland, tracts of a similar size are 
held by separate tenants. And it is precisely among the peas- 
antry of France, the croftiers of Scotland, and the cottiers of 
Ireland, that stagnation and desolation have overspread the 
land, and semi-barbarism and starvation, the people. The di- 
vision of land for cultivation into very small tracts, is destruc- 
tion of its value. The soil of France is, on an average, of un- 
usual fertility, and its climate so genial as to be favorable to a 
great variety of productions. Yet there with a dense popula- 
tion of its own, and in the neighborhood of Great Britain, with 
its mighty cities, the greatest market in the world, the average 
value of land is only five or six dollars per acre — is less than 
in Virginia. In England the average size of tracts held by the 
several sorts of tenure, is about 150 acres, which is about as 
small as can be made profitable; as small as is compatible with 
the due rotation of crops, a judicious variety of stock, and the 
prompt adoption of improvements in culture and utensils. In 
France the owner of a three or four acre farm, worth only 



[ 28 ] 

twenty-five dollars, cannai of course aftbrd to buy an improved 
plough — much less can the renter of such a tract in Ireland. 
It would cost more than the whole crop h worth. According- 
ly a large proportion of French and Irish tillage is performed 
with the spade, at a great expense of manual labor; and accord- 
ingly, it is in England chiefly, where the tracts are large, that 
the modern improvements in agriculture have been made — and 
there the soil is more productive and profitable. That some Vir- 
ginians instead of adopting some of the new methods of preserv- 
ing and restoring the fertility of their lands, choose to emi- 
grate to new States, where the soil is already rich by nature, 
and is cheap, results from a mere calculation and comparison 
of the cost of the two systems. And if it be found more profia- 
ble to remove to anew, than to renovate an old soil, it is an 
evidence of thrift, rather than poverty in the emigrant. And 
of this the superiority of the new Soutvvestern over the new 
Northwestern States, which will appear by a comparison of 
their property and population is ample proof.* 

But the impression exists that the population of the South as 
a section is really stationary, or is declining. And this being 
assumed, it is regarded as evidence that the people of the 
South are migrating, either from dissatisfaction with its institu- 
tions or with its progress and prospects, or that the vices pecu- 
liar to its system, are unfavorable to the increase of its popula- 
tion — or that all these combine to depopulate her. 

*In the Kentucky Auditors report of 1848, we find a table (No. 16) of 
the distributioa of property in that State, which indicates a degree of 
wealth, and of its cquitabls nllotmcnt, which may challenge any community 
for comparison. 

Without property 7,436 parents. 

With less than $100 worth 12,964 

" from SlOO to $400 12,344 

» 400 to $600 5,685 

over $600 28,791 

It has been alleged, that in the South there are only about 300,000 
slave holders. Well, supposing each adult slave holder to have an aver- 
age family of six, the slave holding population of the South would 
amount to 1,800,000, which is probably as lai-ge a proportion as the land 
holding p ipulittion of the Ncrlli. 



But all this is a mistake. If we deduct iVorn the Iree States 
the foreign emigration, and its oRspring the residue represent- 
ing the native population, does not indicate so great a natural 
increase, as the present nnmber of people in the Southern 
Stales. 

Of the foreign emigrants, no register was kept until 1820- 
From that year until 1840, it amounted to more than 700,000 
persons, according to the returns. But large numbers came 
by the way of Canada, for which during a considerable 
period the facilities were greater than by the direct route. 
These have been estimated at half the number registered in 
the custom house. Assuming, however, the whole number to 
be a million, which is the lowest estimate I have seen, their 
natural increase in the twenty years, could not have been less 
than half a million — making 1,500,000. Now the white 
population of 1 840, in the free States was 9,537,431 ; deducting 
1,500,000 it would be 8,057,431. In 1820 it was 5,033,983 
and has consequently had a natural increase of 60 per cent. 

The white population of the South w;is in 1820, 2,833,585 
and is now 4,635,637, which exhibits a natural increase of 65 
per cent. I have included all the foreign emigration in the 
North. A little of it, however, has gone to the Souih; but 
not more than the excess of Southern people who have re- 
moved to the Northwestern States.* 

This evidence of the great natural increase of Southern 
white population, is an answer to another imputation against it 
very current at the North. It has been held that slavery 
is a degradation of labor; that therefore the white people 
of the South refuse to work, and live in idleness; and that 
I'rom idleness they become dissipated, vicious, and violent. 
But vice is fatal to the increase of population. It destroys 

*Ithas been suggested that the emigrant population arrive poor, and 
therefore when included in the average of individua' wealth in the North, 
reduce Its rates. But the foreigner is generally adult if he is poor: and 
therefore acquires wealth more easily than the native. If, however the 
emigrant population be stricken out of the estimate, and the whi>Io prop, 
erty of the North divided among the natives, their proportion will yet be 
far below that of the ?cut!i. 



[30 J 

constitutional vigor, diminishes the number of children, and 
afflicts the few that are born, with hereditary infirmity and 
premature death. One fact is disclosed by the census, which 
is very significant on this point. There is an excess among 
the white people of the South of 132,072 males. Among those 
of the North only 178,275. This is about 97,000 less than the 
proportion the North ought to have, to equal the South. But 
when we consider that the foreign population settles al- 
most exclusively in the Northern States, and contains much 
more than its proportion of males, it is apparent that the defic- 
it of the North in male population is much larger. Now the 
vices of civilized society afiect males chiefly, young men and 
boys, far more than any other. And if it were true that the 
South is more immoral than the North, it would appear in the 
deficit of male population. But the reverse seems to be the 
fact. 

The explanation of this result is to be found in the same 
circumstances that determine the relative wealth of the two 
sections. The South is rural in residence and habits. It does 
not present the temptation or the opportunity for sensual grati- 
fication to be found in city life. It is to cities that the pas- 
sions and appetites resort for their carniv/al. The theatre, the 
gaming house, the drinking house, and places of still more 
abandoned character abound in them, and to these the dissipa- 
pated youth goes forth at night from hoir.e, along the high-road 
to ruin. In the family of the Southern planter or farmer, al- 
though wine may be drank and cards played, all is done at 
home under paiental and femjnine observation: and therefore 
excess can never go so far. Of course the sons of planters 
visit the cities, but those in their neighborhood aretrivial in 
size, and meagre in attractions — those more distant are the 
more seldom seen. The ancient poets, who thought that the 
lower regions, were the abode of great and good men, as well 
a;j bad, located the entrance in a remote and solitary place. 
Thus Homer conducts Ulysses on this visit to the shades of his 
bi'oiher warrior Greeks, to a thinly settled country of dark 
skinned people. 



[31 ] 

"When lo, we reached old Ocean's utmost bounds, 
Where rocks control his waves with ever-duiing mounds. 
There in a lonely land and gloomy cells, 
The dusky nation of Cimmeria dwells, 

There he found the portals of the infernal world. So Virgil 
conducts Eneas to the sombre and solemn forest of the Cumean 
sybil. But with our improved conceptions of the character of 
that place and its inmates, and the most direct avenues to ap- 
proach it, the modern Epic poet who desires to give his hero a 
view of it, will have to fix the gateway in the heart of a gerat 
city where the vices hold their revels. Tis there 

"The gates of Hell are open nigrht and day, 
Smooth the descent and easy is the way." 

It cannot be said that the excessive mortality among the 
males of the North, is owing to their unwholesome employ- 
ments. For the females are employed in similar or more 
destructive avocations. In Massachusetts about fifty thousand 
women work in factories, and yet in that State there is an ex- 
cess of 7,672 females, whereas if the natural propoition of the 
sexes existed among the native population, or such as is found at 
the South, Massachusetts ought to have an excess of twenty 
two thousand males. So that at present she has about thirty 
thonsand females beyond the due proportion. It is true that 
Massachusetts loses a portion of her male population by emi- 
gration to the West, although she is reinforced again by the 
excess of males in the foreign emigrants that have settled thtre. 
But there still remains a large portion who must have perished 
by the sickness and vices of the towns and cities that contain 
so large a part of her people — Boston alone with its suburb 
towns, having a population of 200,000, or nearly one-third of 
all the State. So then, the operation of the institutions of this 
model State (.f the North, is to violate the laws of nature by a 
separation of the sexes; to send thousands of her sons away 
from their happy condition at home, to encounter the hardships 
of the West; to send multitudes of others to die by dissipation 
in her cities, and to place her lonely and deserted women, not 
in convents, but in factories. I have said that there are about 



[3JJ 

fifty thousand women employed in the factories of Massachu- 
setts. Such is the testimony of the official census of the State 
in 1845. Those who are thus employed it is well known, are 
generally young, unmarried women, as such a vocation would 
be rather incompatible with the domestic duties of wives. 
Now according to the census of 1840, there were but about 
57,000 women in that State, between the ages of 17 and 25. 
So that about seven-eighths of the marriageable women of Mass- 
achusetts, at a time of life that ought to be sacred to love and 
courtship, to pleasure and to hope, to home and to society, are' 
sent forth from the parental roof, to labor for years, confined to 
a over-heated room, containing a hundred persons each, con- 
fined to a space five feet square, far thirteen hours a day, un- 
der a male overseer, and not permitted to receive a visit from 
a lover or a relative in the mill, except by the permission of 
the proprietor's agent, or at the boarding house, except by the 
permission of the proprietor's house-keeper; for such are the 
regulations and condition of Lowell. This confinement tc» 
factories, postpones the marriage of the women of Massachu- 
setts to an average of 23 or 24 years.* 1 do not know at what 
age precisely, marriages [o(;cur in Virginia, but the census 
shows that Virginia, with fewer adults, has 100,000 more of 
children. 

In determining the condition of civilized communities.^ it is 
crenerally considered essential to enquire into the state of their 
pauperism; not only because the paupers themselves usually 
constitute a considerable class, but because their number 
affects vitally the condition of the entire laboring class. 

In the State of New York the progress of pauperism has 
been rapid. In 1830, the number supported or relieved was 
15.506. In 1835 it was 38,362,— according to Chapin's U. S. 
Gazetteer for 1 844- In 1 843 or 4 the number had increased to 
about 72,000 permanent, and the same number of occasional 
paupers, making a total of 144,000 as appears from the Jouu- 
nal of Commerce. These were for the whole State, and there 
was thus, one pauper to every seventeen inhabitants- In 1847 

*Ainericaa Almaaac. 



[33] 

there were received at the principal alms houses for the city of 
New York 28,692 persons, and oM^c?rJor relief, was given out of 
public funds to 44,572 persons, making a total of 73,264. So 
that about one.person out of every five in the city of New York 
was dependent, more or less, on public charity. The total cost 
that year of this pauperism was $319,293 88.* For this pres- 
ent year of 1849, the estimate is $400,000, according to the 
mayor's message. 

In Massachusetts, it appears by the returns, that there were 
in 1836 5,580 paupers, and in 1848, 18,693. These were all 
in the alms houses. Those relieved out of the alms houses, 
were 9,817, making a total of 28,510, according to to the re- 
port of the Secretary of State of Massachusetts. And the 
returns from forty-one towns are omitted. If allowance be 
made for these, it will be seen that in Massachusetts one person 
out of every tvvrenty is a constant or occasional pauper. It thus 
appears that in these two States pauperism is advancing ten 
times as rapidly as their wealth or population. It has becoine 
so great as to include large numbers of able-bodied men, who it 
appears cannot, or what is worse will not, earn a subsistence, 
and if such be the case, what must be the condition of the 
great mass of people hanging on the verge of pauperism, but 
withheld by an honorable pride, from applying for public 

charity. 

Now, throughout the greater part of Virginia and Kentucky, 
pauperism is almost unknown. I passed son-se time ago, the 
poor house of Campbell county, Kentucky, on the opposte 
side of the river, and there was not a solitary inmate. And 
1 have known a populous counly in Virginia to have but one. 

It has generally been supposed that the paupers of Massachu- 
setts and New York, are principally foreign emigrants. But this 
a mistake. In the 5,580 paupers of Massachusetts in 1836, 
only 1 192 were of foreign birth — but little over one-fifth, which 
does not probably exceed the proportion then, of that popula- 
tion in the State. In 1845 of 1016 persons admitted into the 

^American Almanac. 



[34] 

alms houses of Boston, 490 were foreign of whom 382 were 
Irish; but that was the year of Irish famine. In 1848, of 
18.993 paupers received into the alms houses of Massachusetts, 
7,413 were foreigners.* We do not know what proportion of 
the people of that State are foreigners; in Boston there is about 
one-third. 

When pauperism extends to the class that are able to labor? 
it is evident that the wages of labor are reduced to the cost of 
subsistence. And hence the whole class must be subjected to 
the melancholy and terrible necessity of working, rather 
to avoid the poor house, than of bettering their condition. 
And the pauper in an alms house is a slave. He works under 
a master, and recieves nothing but a subsisetnce. And there 
are already in New York and Massachusetts, about one- 
hundred thousand persons in this condition; about an equal 
number occasionally so, and they are increasing at the rate of 
200 per cent, whilst the whole population does not increase 20 
per cent in ten years. In Cincinnati the number of paupers, 
permanent and occasional, already amounts to two thousand. 

Whilst the property of the North is thus compelled to con- 
tribute to the support of this great and growing bui den, and 
the labor of the North, must not only assist in its support also, 
but must work in competion with it, they are subjected to 
another mighty evil, which springs from, or at least is aggravated 
by the same causes, and that is crime. 

The number of convicts in the three penitentiaries of New 
York, Auburn, Sing Sing and Blackwell's Island is about two 
thousand. In the penitentiary of Virginia there are only 111 
whites, 89 blacks. This indicates four times the amount of 
crime in proportion to the white population in New York, as in 
Virginia. In Massachusetts there were in 1847, 288 persons 
in the State prison, which indicates more than twice the crime 
in that State as in Virginia. Taking all the New England 
States together, their penitentiary convicts are twice as numer- 
ous in proportion to population, as in Virginia, as will be seeo 

^American Almanac, 1849. 



[35] 

bv consulting the American Almanac for 1849, It contains 
sketches of the criminal statistics of the several States and is 
N. England authority. In Ohio there are 470 persons in the 
penitentiary — in Kentucky 130, Ohio being 25 per cent the 
most, according to population. According to the returns of 
the Kentucky penitentiary, one-half of her convicts for the 
last ten years, came from the single county in which Louisville? 
her principal town is located — and one-third of the whole 
number were born in free States. So much for the States of 
the North, agricultural, manufacturing and commercial, old and 
new, as compared with those of the South in crime. The re- 
sults are uniformly, and largely in favor of the South. 

If we turn to the official reports of crime in the great cities 
of the North, we behold a state of society exhibited, at which 
the mind is appalled. In Boston the number of persons annual- 
ly arraigned for crime, exceeds four thousand, and of this num- 
ber about one third are females. So that one person out of 
everv 14 males, and one out of every 28 females is arrested 
annually for criminal oflfsnces. There may be some who are 
arraigned more than once a year, but on the other hand, there 
must bemany who escape detection altogether. 

In New York the proportion of crime is about the same, 
■some eighteen thousand persons having been arrested there last 
year. Of these, it is said six thousand were for drunkeness? 
twelve thousand were committed to the tombs for examination ' 
of whom ten thousand were committed for trial. Oi these 
there were sentenced to the State prison 119 men and 17 
women — to the penitentiary 700 men and 170 women — to the 
•city prison 162 men and 67 women — total 981 men, 254 
women — showing an amount of crime in a single city greater 
than in all the Southern States together. In the Kentucky 
penitentiary there is not a single woman — in the Virginia, I 
believe there is none. 

The enormous amount of crime in the Eastern cities, which 
already rivals the'^depravity of those of Europe, has been as- 
cribed to the multitude of European emigrants. But the 



[36] 

returns do not sustain this plea. Of 7,009 persons in the jails' 
and houses of correction in Massachusetts in 1847, on^y 1165 
were natives of foreign countries. This is less than one-fourth 
of the whole number, and cannot vary materially from the 
proportions of the foreign and native population in the State.* 
Whilst the South has been so much more secure than the 
North in life and property from individual crime, it has been at 
least equally ex('mpt from social disturbance. The apprehen- 
sions of danger from the dissimilarity of its white and black 
population have not been realized. The proportion of white 
and black remains as at first, about two to one. Even in Bra- 
zil where this proportion is reversed, where there are two 
blacks to one white, tranquility has reigned for a quarter of a 
century. And it is remarkable that Brazil and the United 
States, the only two nations on this continent, where African 
slavery prevails, are the only two which have succeeded in the 
establishment of stable and flourishing, social and political 
institutions. In all the Spanish American States, where the 
attempt has been made, to introduce political equality among 
distinct and and dissimilar races, it has been followed by inces- 
sant insurrection, anarchy, poverty, vice and barbarism. 

When the Union between the North and South, under our 
present con'^titulion was formed, the social, political and econo- 
mical operation of the institutions peculiar to each, were mat- 
ters of theory and conjecture. We have now had the experi- 
ence of half a century; and the result is before us in the facts 
I have presented, facts against which neither speculative philos- 
ophy, nor sectional predjudice, egotism or fanaticism can 
prevail. 

It will be observed I do not compare the whole people of 
the North with the whole population of the South. I am now 
comparing the whites only of both sections; it being the first 
object to ascertain the effects of their respective institutions 
on the whites of the two sections. I do not compare Northern 
cities with Southern — but the white people, rural and urban, 

*American Almanac, 1849'. 



[21] 

together of one section with those of the other. I have re 
tered more particularly to Northern cities because they con' 
tain so large, if not the largest, portion of Northern population 
— and are the boast and characteristic of the Northern system 
I have also prefered to compare the old States of the sections 
not only because they are similar in climate and productions 
but because in them the effects of the two systems are more de- 
veloped, and as has been contended to the great disadvantage 
of the South. 

There is a class of topics of a more intangible nature but 
not the less important, and which are much insisted on in this 
controversy, that now remain to be briefly considered. It is 
urged that religion and education are more prevalent and 
flourishing in the North than in the South. It is true that the 
form of religion existing in New England, and by law estab- 
lished, was extremely strict and self-denying: as that of VircTJn. 
ia — the Episcopal — was^ then one of the most indulgent of 
Protestant sects. But is well known that the Puritan charac- 
ter has been rapidly degenerating and passing away. Indeed 
the forms of that faith are no longer dominant in Boston, the 
ancient seat of its power, and in their place the Unitarians 
have prevailed, and they are gaining ground rapidly in New 
England. A change has occurred in Virginia, but a change in 
the opposite direction. Instead o( the Episcopalians, the 
Baptists are predominant in Virginia. Thus under the opera- 
lion of their respective institutions the religion of Massachu- 
setts has receded from one ol the most strict to one of the 
most relaxed systems of the Protestant faith — while Virginia 
has advanced from one of the most indulgent, to one of the 
stricter forms cf religious descipline. There are no means of 
ascertaining the number of members in all the churches in the 
several states. Virginia has about 80,000 of Baptists alone, 
she has 30,000 Methodists,* and a larger proportion yet of Epis- 
copalians than any other state. Altogether she must have her 
full proportion. 

But it is in Education that the North claims the great pre- 
eminence over the South. In Massachusetts, according to the 
''Ameiican Almanac. 



[38] 

census of 1840, there were but 4448 white persons above the 
age of twenty who could not read and write— and in Virginia 
there were 58. 787. In Ohio there were 35,364, in Kentucky 
40,01G. In Illinois 27,502. in Mississippi 8,360. Tims it ap- 
pears that whilst there are more than twelve times as m:my illit- 
erate persons in the oldest Southern as in the oldest Northern 
State, the proportion changes as we advance Westward, until 
we find a greater proportion of them in a new state of the North 
than in one of the South. And thus it seems that in the new 
states where children are not educated at public expense, and 
where, therefore, their parents must provide for them, the chil- 
dren of the South are better educated; or rather, perhaps, it 
would seem, that the emigration from the North is much more 
ignorant than the South. Still, however, the odds of school in- 
struction are decidedly with the North. This results from ob- 
vious causes. The territorial area of Virginia is probably nine 
times as great as that of Massachusetts. If therefore, Virgmia 
were disposed to adopt the common school system it would re- 
quire nine times the school houses and teachers to afford the 
same conveniences for attending school that exist in Massachu- 
setts. Virginia is a thinly settled agricultural state intersected 
by several ranges of mmmtains. In many places there could 
not be found ten scholars in ten miles square. In such places a 
population might be able to live comfortably, but not to estal>- 
lish a school, or send their chi\dren abroad to boarding schools 
Hence there mu«t be a considerable number without schools. 
In commercial and manufacturii\g states or those of small 
farms and dense agricultural population, this evil is not so much 
felt. 

But Virginia has a system of oral instruction which com- 
pensates for the want of schools, and that is her social inter- 
course. The social intercourse of the south is probably much 
greater than that of any people that ever existed. There is 
ceitainly nothing like the number of visits among the families 
of a city or even the same square in a city, as prevails in the 
country of the Souih. And these visits are noi fashionable 



i 



[39] 

calls, but last for days and weeks— and they are the great 
resource of the South for instruction and amusement. It is 
true that persons are not taught at such places to read or 
write, but they are taught to think and converse. They are 
the occasions of interchanging opinions and diffusing intelli- 
gence; — and to perform the duties, to enjoy the pleasures of 
such intercourse, to please, to shine, and to captivate, requires 
a degree of mental culture which no custom of the North so 
much demands. Accordingly the South exhibits the remarka. 
ble phehomenon of an agricultural people, distinguished above 
all others of the present day by the elegance of their man= 
ners and the intellectual tone of their society. 

The North excels in books. In History she has Bancroft 
and Prescott,in Poetry, Bryant, Halleck and Whittier, in Criti. 
cism, Everett and Channing. In sculpture she has produced 
a Powers. Her Franklin has drawn the lightening from heaven, 
and taught it to play harmlessly around our very hearths — her 
Morse has even given letters to lightning, and lightning to 
letters! The North excels in the arts and the physical sciences 
in inventions and improvements. She excels in associati^'e 
action, not merely for Railroads and manufactures, but for lite- 
rary, benevolent and religious objects. I do not desirp to de- 
tract one iota from her exalted merits and high civilisation.— 
But in individual character and individual aclion, the South 
excels. For a warm heart and open hand, for .sympathy of 
feeling, fidelity of friendship, and high sense of honor; for 
knowledge of the sublime mechanism of mar> and reason and 
eloquence to delight, to instruct end to dir-ct him, the South 
is superior; and when the North convs into action with 
the South, man to man, in council or ii the field, the genius 
of the South has prevailed from the days of Jefferson 
to Calhoun, from Washington to Taylor. And it is to the 
solitude which the rural life of tb-' South affords, so favorable 
to reflection, and it is to the elevated rural society of the South 
so favorable for the study of ftumm nature, that we must as- 
cribe those qualities of per^^uasion and self-command by which 



[40] 

her statesmen and captains have moved the public councils, 
and won so many a field. 

The abolition of African Slavery in the South has been urged 
for many years by a portion of Northern people. And now its 
restriction to its present territorial limits is the avowed purpose 
of almost every Northern State. The basis on which this pol- 
icy rests is the assumption that slavery is sinful and unprofita- 
ble. The means now relied on to arrest its future progress is not 
the pursuasion of the people of the slave holding States, but 
the numerical power of the free States acting through the 
Federal government. Suppose now the South had a majority 
of votes, and were to announce its determination to arrest the 
further progress of commerce and manufactures in consequence 
of their poverty pauperism, crime and mortality what would 
be the sentiment everywhere felt in the North? Why one of 
indignation, scorn and resistance. Such does the South feel 
now! 

When the North American colonies confederated for resis- 
tance to Great Britain the territo ial erea of the Southern por- 
ti<m of them was 648,202 square miles — that of the Northern 
only 164,081, or about one-fourth as large. Virginia alone had, 
by Rojal charter, the whole North-western territory in herlimits. 
and duriarr the war had confirmed her title by the patriotism 
and valor «>f herown citizens — who rescued even Illinois from 
British powe:. But before the present constitution was formed 
Virginia, with » magnanimity almost infatuated, had ceded to 
the confederacy for the formation of free states, the whole 
North-western tenJtory now constituting the States of Ohio^ 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, containing 261,681 
square miles, and maki>g the territory of the free states rather 
more than that of the sUiTeholding. The object of this cession 
and the ordinance of 1787 vas to equalize the area of the two 
sections. The acquisition of L(juisiana in 1803,added 1,138,103 
square miles to our territory, cf which, by the Missouri com- 
promise, the South obtained ot.ly 226,013 square miles, or 
about one-fifth— the other four fifths,notwithstanding it came to 



[41] 

MS as a slaveholding province, were allotted to the North, which 
thus had acquired more than 700,000 square miles of territory 
over the South. Florida and Oregon were acquired by the 
treaty of 1819, by which the South got 59,268 square miles, 
and the North 341,463, making tlie North about 1,000,000 
of square miles the most. In 1845 Texas was annexed, which 
added only 325,520 square miles to the South, even if all Texas 
were included. In 1848 we obtained 526,078 square miles 
more in the territories of New Mexico and California. And now 
the North claims the whole of this also — and not only this but 
half of Texas besides, which would make the share of the North 
exceed that of the South nearly 1,500,000 square miles: — a 
territory about equal in extent to the whole Valley of the Mis- 
sissippi, and leaving the South only about 810,812 square mil (!s- 
while the North retains 2,097,1 24, or nearly three-fourths of the 
whole! And this too when the South contributed her full 
share of the men and money by which the whole territory was 
obtained. In the revolutionary war the South furnished an 
average of 16,714 men in each year, and the North 25,875, 
which nearly corresponds with their respective number of citi- 
zens, and that too, although the war was waged chiefly against 
the large cities of the North — cities being in war the most 
tempting and the most vulnerable, points of attack. In the 
war with Mexico the South supplied two thirds of the volun- 
teers which constituted three-fourths of the entire force em- 
ployed. The revenue by which these wars have been sup- 
ported, the public debt paid, and the price for the territory 
furnished, has been raised chiefly by duties which have noto- 
riously operated designedly and incidentally to promote the 
industry and capital of the North, and to oppress those of the 
South. 

If after all this the South should submit to be plundered of 
her share of the territory now in dispute, when, as an agricul- 
tural people, she requires her full proportion, she would be re- 
creant to her interests, her power, her right, her honor, and her 
fame; — recreant to her history and her destiny. 



[42] 

One of the proposed objects of these Northern reformers is to 
promote the prosperity of the South. I have shown that sh» 
wants none of their aid, and that there are at home thou- 
sands of criminals to reform and hundreds of thonsands of 
paupers to be relieved, on whom their philanthropy may be 
exhausted. 

Is it for the welfare of the slave they are contending? I 
hold it to be the duty even of him who undertakes to subvert 
the established order of things, to manifest at least as much 
respect for experience as experiment, and it so happens that 
the experience of emancipation has been ample and diversified. 

In Hayti, the black, after exterminating the white population, 
remained independent and isolated, the exclusive architect of 
its own institutions and destiny. The result is that they have 
relapsed into pristine barbarism. The exports of Hayti 
amounted in 1789 to about twenty five millions of dollars — 
they do not now amount to one tenth of that sum. The Hay- 
tien contents himself with the cultivation of a few yams for a 
mere subsistence, and a mere hut for a dwelling. The blacks 
and mulattoes are at civil war, and yesterdpy's papers an- cv 
nounced that an army of twenty thousand men was advancing 
against the principal town, Port au Prince. 

Another plan of emancipation is to send the liberated to 
Liberia. But besides the expense of such a system, which 
renders it impracticable, it is attended with the death of from 
one-fourth to one-half of the emigrants by the coast fever. 

The third plan attempted is that by the British in their West 
Indies — the plan of gradual abolition by apprenticeship and ulti- 
mate equality of black and white; and this also has failed. The 
exports of Jamaica have already, in the first ten years of the 
experiment, fallen one-half. The negroes refuse to work even 
for high wages beyond what is necessary for mere subsistence, 
the planters are bankrupt, plantations are already abandoned, 
and the island is hastening to the condition of Hayti. 

The fourth plan of emancipation is that which has been going 
on with us. That of manumission by the will of the master, 



143 ;j 

the freedman remaining with black and white, or seeking other 
gtates. This experiment has not succeeded. The emanci- 
pated slave does not appear to be willing to perform the 
amount of work necessary to enable him to compete success- 
fully with the white laborer. In the state of New York the 
Constitution confered the right of suffrage on colored persons 
owning .$250 worth of properly. Yet in in the city of New 
York in 1845,out of ll,939*colored people there were ouly 103 
voters, and fnotwithstanding their numbers are augmented by 
frequent manumissions and fugitive slaves, they do not increase 
so rapidly as the slave population, which is evidence that the 
their condition is not so comfortable. It is also a curious fact 
that of 386,293 free persons of color in 1 840, nearly half 
(183,766) prefercd to remain in the slave slates, where cer- 
tainly, as a class they are treated with no peculiar favor. In 
Massachusetts, where so much sympathy is expressed for them 
they caunot or will not live. There are less now of them in 
Boston than there was twenty years ago, and in both Virginia 
and Massachusetts there are ten times as many free colored 
people in the penitentiary as their proportion of the white pop- 
ulation. Is it then for the sake of such emancipation as the 
West Indian, which results in idleness, barbarism, and civil war 
among the blacks, or for Liberian, which exterminates, or the 
American, which subjects them to crime and want, that Philan_ 
thropy would undertake to overturn the unrivalled system of 
Southern civilization. 

But we are told that slavery is an evil. Well, so is war an evil^ 
and so perhaps is government itself an evil, since it also is an 
abridgment of liberty. But one of the first objects of our cons- 
titution is to provide for war — for the common defence. And the 
people of the United States prefer the evil of war to the greater 
evils <.f being plundered and subdued. They prefer the evil of 
government to the greater evil of anarchy. So the people o! the 
South prefer slavery to the evils of a dense manufacturing and 
commercial population which appear to be inevitable with- 
out it; and the black-man may prefer the slavery of the 



[44] 

South to the want, the crime, the barbarism and blood which 
attend his race in all other countries. In the practical affairs 
of human life in its present state, choice of evils is frequently 
all that is in our power. Good and evil in fact become relative, 
and not positive terms. And tne necessity is recognized by 
the example of our Saviour, who applied the extreme remedy 
of the lash to the money changers who profaned the temple. — 
It is consistent for a rigid sect like the Quakers to oppose 
slavery, because they proscribe and repudiate war and luxury 
and all other evils. And we may all hope for the time to 
come, when in the progress of Christinity the evils of slavery 
in the South, and those of pauperism, crime, and mortality in 
the North will be greatly mitigated or abolished. But the 
North can now make no protest, because the luxurious sys- 
tem of Northern civilization not only subjects the great mass 
of people to unwonted labor and privation, but actually sac- 
rifices in peace a greater amount of life than is usually expended 
by communities at war. 

If then the welfare of neither white nor black in the South 
would be promoted by the restriction or abolition of slavery, 
would the prosperity of the North be advanced? The only 
thing of which the North complains on its own account is the 
ratio of representation fixed by the Constitution which gives 
the South a vote equal to three-fifihs of the blacks. But on 
the other hand, in consequence of the existence of slavery in 
the South, the North has a monopoly of foreign emigration. — 
This amounted as we have seen from 1829 to 1840 to a mil- 
lion and a half, including its increase. In the previous 
thirty years it must have been, with its increase to this day, 
at least half a million more. Since 1840 it has amounted to a 
million besides. So that the North has the vote and the 
power of three millions of people against the political power 
which slavery now confers, and that is equivalent to a white 
population only of about two millions. 

And furthermore, by the peculiar agricultural employment of 
Southern industry and capital, the South is a customer and 



[45] 

Consumer of Northern manufactures and commerce find of 
North-western agriculture. Abolish slavery and convert the 
South into a people of mechanics, artizans and merchants, 
and instead of being a customer she becomes a competitor of 
the other section. And if the march of pauperism, crime, and 
mortality of the North be so great now, what would it be then? 
The condition of modern civilization is far more laborious 
and oppressive than the ancient. The seats of ancient science 
and the arts were in the mild climates of the Meditranean 
shore, or in the south of Asia and Europe. And in America 
the ruins of her unrecorded civilization are to be found in 
Palenque and Copan, all in a similar climate. The genius of 
England has carried civilization to a more northern latitude, 
and that of America has extended it, if not higher in latitude, 
to a still more rigorous climate than that of England. The 
wants of such a climate are great and imperious. The cost of 
fuel alone in the city of New York exceeds $16,000,000 an- 
nually. The clothing must be much warmer, the houses more 
substantial, the food more nourishing and all more expensive 
than a milder climate. And this great augmentaion of the bur- 
thens of civilized life must be borne in the North by freemen, 
not as of old by slaves. Hence have we seen the fearful strug- 
gle of Northern labor for subsistence; notwithstanding the im- 
mense aid it has derived from modern machinery and inven- 
tion. But take from that labor the custom, and subject it to the 
competition of the South, where so much less is required for 
subsistence, and that so much cheaper, and the result would 
be as ruinous to the present sytem of the North as to tha^ 
of the South. These two great systems have grown up to- 
gether. That of the North could not have so much expanded 
without a market in Southern agriculture — noi* could this have 
grown so great but for the demand and supplies of the North. 
Together they have flourished; together they must falter and 
fall. To restrict, therefore, the territorial extension of the 
South, and by circumscribing its industry render it unprofit- 
able is to restrict and paralize the prosperity of the North in 



[46] 

all its departments. Together these institutions have marched 
harmoniously to that eminence and success which have won 
the prosperity of both at home and extorted the admiration 
of the world abroad. If either should fall by the hand of the 
other the crime would not only be fraticide — it would be su- 
icide; — and over the mouldering ruins of both would deserve to 
be written the epitaph: Here were a people who disputed 
about the capacity of the African for liberty and civilization, 
and did not themselves possess the capacity to preserve ihei^ 
own. 



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